Post 77 - A back massage and a big weekend

My training over the next few weeks will be a bit disjointed and a bit disrupted by a couple of work trips to Italy. Also, tapering for and recovering from the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial will mean a couple of weeks of taking it easy. So I have to be flexible, to adapt and make the best of circumstances. Normally after two tough weeks I would have a full week of easy training, but with going to Italy next week, I decided to only take half a week easy, and then train hard during the weekend before going to Italy. In Italy I can do some light training, and then the weekend after that I can train hard again, then I’ll likely be out to Italy again where I’ll taper for a week before the 100 mile time trial. This seems like the optimal way to get the training fitted in around Italy, and to get myself to the start line in Norfolk in a fit and fresh state.

So during this week, I had three full days off training. No swimming, cycling, running, stretching, weights or anything. I was tired from the previous two weeks of tough training, and the three days off did me no harm. A mental break as much as a physical break. A trip to Phases Sports Therapy during the week did me no harm either – Des spent some time working on my back to loosen it out. It was good to chew the fat with him and have my back ironed out. After the treatment, I did have a bit more of a spring in my step. Des has been working with a few good athletes over the past year or so, and has seen his treatment sessions deliver big performance improvements. I’m hopeful that if I can have four or five good treatment sessions on my legs, I will see some similar performance gains which will help me on the road to qualifying for the Ironman world championships.

Getting treatment on my legs means that I will finally have to shave them, and that will be a sad day… But, whatever I have to do…

In terms of miles, this weekend was probably the biggest weekend I’ve done in training: 6.4km in the pool, about 120 miles on the bike, and 19 miles of running over three days. Friday’s pool session was tough. I like Friday afternoons in the pool, because the pool is always very quiet, and I can usually get a lane to myself. This week, I was doing 100m repeats, with the swim and the recovery taking 2 minutes. Do the 100m in 1:30, and you get 30 seconds of recovery. I wanted to do at least 20 repeats, and I also wanted to pace them well and not fade in the second half of the session. After a first 100m in 1:26 (too fast as usual – the first 100m feels so, so easy), I settled into 1:29 repeats. And I hoped I could sustain them. I got to 17 or 18 repeats and was starting to blow hard, but the times didn’t drop. In the end, I did 25 sets of 100m, all below 1:30, and I was happy with that. Single-leg bike drills followed, while watching Ironman Kona videos on the laptop for inspiration:

Saturday was to be a long turbo session. I needed to do 4 hours, with a 100 mile time trial coming up in a couple of weeks. So I got ready, and I got on, and I pedalled. I worked through the gears, getting progressively tougher every 15 minutes. At the start of each hour, I throttled back, but the starting resistance for each hour was progressively tougher than the preceding hour’s starting resistance level. Also, during this session I “kicked” every 10 minutes and really lifted my power output for 20-30 seconds. This was to simulate accelerating out of a corner and getting up to speed – Ironman UK will have a lot of braking and accelerating on the bike, and I wanted to practice this. After four hours I was pushing close to 300 watts, and I did 4:20 in total, followed by a short run. Not bad. Plus, I’d got to watch a lot of snooker on the laptop in 4 hours and 20 minutes…

On Sunday I hit the pool again and used my hand paddles, leg float and evil-rubber-band-for-tying-my-legs-together. A good pool session was followed by steeling myself for a long run. Of all the sessions I do, I dislike long runs the most. I find them tough on the body. But I have to do them. I’ve slightly changed my running training strategy this year and have been/will be doing a bit more speedwork and fewer longer runs. Too many long runs can create a bit of staleness and residual fatigue, so I’ve been mixing my running training up. But this means I have to be very careful not to get injured, and to make sure I am properly recovered.

Anyway, it was long run time this week so I stretched and warmed up and headed out. It was a bad day for a long run – quite hot and very humid. It had rained heavily earlier in the day, but a strong sun had come out and was now evaporating all the water off the wet ground. I like to try and do significant chunks of my longer runs off-road – in parks or along trails – so this worsened the humidity. It was like running in a tropical jungle and I was sweating a lot.

The idea behind my long runs isn’t to run them super-hard, risking injury and leaving myself wrecked for days afterwards. The idea is to just get used to running for extended periods of time. Ironman marathon pace will be something like 7:30-7:40 per mile, which for a standalone run is quite slow.

I started off at 7:30 pace, nice and easy, and without even trying, my pace gradually came down until after 14 or 15 miles I was running at under 7 minutes per mile. I got through the run, got back to the house and got a load of fluid down me. Then a protein milkshake, a banana, a flapjack and some porridge. Then I went outside and lay down and elevated my legs, to help to drain out any lactic acid. What you do in the 20-30 minutes after any tough session is crucial, and it will define how well you recover from it.

 

Feet up, lactic draining...

Nice decoration on the wall... great house 

After I had done the crucial things – eaten, drank, taken on protein, elevated my legs, done a little jog and had a shower, I was happy to sit in front of the TV and eat pasta, vegetables and salmon, while watching the first day of what looks like a classic snooker final. I’m a bit gutted I won’t get to see its second-day conclusion as I’ll be flying to Italy. Also during this week I got a pair of £60 cycling shorts for £37.99. If the pad’s comfort level is on a par with how futuristic it looks, they should be a good pair of shorts…

So next week I’ll be in Italy, I’ll train hard next weekend, then the week after this it looks like I’ll be back to Italy, where I’ll taper down for the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial on Saturday 16th May. Then I’ll take a week or so to properly recover, then it’ll be two more tough weeks, a week to taper for the Bristol triathlon, a week to recover from that, a final 2-week training block and 2 weeks to taper for the Ironman. Sounds straightforward… So near and yet so far. So much done, and so much still to do. I’ll get there. Hopefully… All I know is that I’m doing everything I can to maximise my chances, and I have to trust that’ll be enough…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 27 Apr: 14 hill reps: 70, 69, 68, 68, 68, 68, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 68
Tue 28 Apr: Rest
Wed 29 Apr: Rest
Thu 30 Apr: Rest
Fri 1 May: Swim 3.1km (25 x 100m off 2mins), 1:05 turbo (single leg drills, 7 x 3mins R, L, B)
Sat 2 May: 4:20 turbo, 25 minute run
Sun 3 May: Swim 3.3km (paddle drills), 110 minute run

Totals: Swim 6.4km, Bike 120 miles, Run 26 miles